Friday, June 25, 2010

The results of a survey on physician attitudes about the marketing practices of industry has just been published in the Archives of Surgery and might provide some insight. Click here to access the article (free full text!). Hat tip to FierceHealthcare.

...first-year residents would be more closely supervised by experienced doctors, and the maximum length of their work shifts would be cut from 24 hours to 16 hours. In addition, all residents and their supervisors would be required to explain their roles to patients, making it clear that supervisors are ultimately in charge of their care.

PharmedOut is at this very moment conducting their conference "Prescription for Conflict: Should Industry Fund Continuing Medical Education?". Click here to access the conference agenda. Click here to read Policy and Medicine's blog posting on this conference.

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Dr. James O. Woolliscroft, dean of Michigan’s medical school, said leading faculty members “wanted education to be free from bias, to be based on the best evidence and a balanced view of the topic under discussion.”
...
The debate over whether the medical profession should develop an industry-free model of postgraduate education is a delicate one. A conference at Georgetown University on Friday, called “Prescription for Conflict,” will highlight the arguments on both sides through presentations by federal health officials, professors from leading medical schools, hospital executives and a Senate investigator.

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

From the JAMA article "Adherence to Surgical Care Improvement Project Measures and the Association With Postoperative Infections":

Our results are consistent with previous findings regardingpublic report of process-of-care quality data. Based on ourfindings, the individual item performance rates reported publiclydo not fulfill their stated purpose of pointing consumers towardhigh-quality hospitals. However, when taken in aggregate, improvedperformance on our global all-or-none composite measure is associatedwith improved outcomes at the discharge level. Therefore, whilethe individual items may not imply quality differences, theoverall ability to demonstrate adherence to multiple SCIP processesof care may. Improved methods for identification of qualityof care are necessary to be able to define improvements in patientoutcomes, and to justify the massive investment of time andmoney in tracking these processes of care.

Saturday, June 19, 2010

From the New York Times article "Surgeon vs. Knee Maker: Who's Rejecting Whom?:

IT was a long, fruitful medical marriage that is fast becoming an angry public divorce, one that offers a rare look at a clash between a top-shelf consultant and his corporate patron over patient safety.
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Amid the booming use of artificial joints in the United States, the breakup between Dr. Berger and Zimmer highlights what experts say is a troubling situation for patients and doctors: when disputes arise about orthopedic implant safety, there are no independent referees or sources of information because no one tracks the performance of the devices.

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Emergency department visits involving the nonmedical use of pain drugs such as oxycodone rose to 305,885 in 2008, from 144,644 in 2004, according to a study by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"We urgently need to take action," CDC Director Dr. Thomas Frieden said in a statement, noting that trips to the emergency department for nonmedical use of prescription pain drugs are now as common as those for use of illicit drugs.

Monday, June 14, 2010

Is U.S. Rep. Edolphus Towns the new Big Pharma watchdog? The chair of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is already spearheading an investigation into Johnson & Johnson's recent consumer-drug recalls. And now, he's launched a probe into Wyeth's marketing of the transplant drug Rapamune.

Sunday, June 13, 2010

Nonsmokers exposed to secondhand smoke were 1.5 times as likely to suffer from symptoms of psychological distress as unexposed nonsmokers, the study found, and the risk increases the greater their exposure to passive smoking.

Click here to access the NYT article. Click here to access the Archives of General Psychiatry article (free text).

Wednesday, June 09, 2010

Tri-City Medical Center's chief executive said Monday that he intends to fire five employees, and discipline a sixth, who allegedly discussed patient information on an Internet site.

In a statement released by the hospital, CEO Larry Anderson said Tri-City will pursue termination hearings for the five employees who "used social media to post their personal discussions concerning hospital patients."

Tri-City has not specified what kind of patient information was posted online, but Anderson said no patient names, photographs or similar identifying information appear to have been used.

Click here to access the NCT article. In this age of social media, this is one to follow!